


Walk in Clinic

by santsii



Category: Original Work
Genre: Child Loss, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Gen, Motherhood, Southern U.S. opiate crisis, Southern Women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 20:31:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20627117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/santsii/pseuds/santsii
Summary: There are only women in the waiting room today.A poem.





	Walk in Clinic

Look at all of us here

Women, generations apart

All with the same shade

The same pall

the same closed mouths

Runny noses

Addiction isn't sexist

Or racist

Or biased 

It doesn't care about your ass or tits

Or the color of your hair fading

Southern roots showing

The gray strands, the gray shade 

The bags under our eyes

Stretch marks on our thighs

Stomachs

Breasts

Babies born in fits

Shakes 

We shake and tremble

At these tiny babies

Tiny pills in our hands

Devour 

No power

Keep going

Take no prisoners 

Mothers 

My sisters 

The melody of your voices, a song in my head

All of our colors blend

Orange or heroin?

We sniffle in silence 

But I can feel the shared violence

Something like a heart would reach out

We should hold hands 

SHOUT

at the injustice 

Generations demolished 

Our womanhood, motherhood 

RIPPED FROM OUR BODIES

our shaking babies

You would criminalize us? US?

YOU MADE US. 

AND YOU WIPED YOUR ASS WITH OUR DOLLARS

WHILE WE CANT AFFORD PAMPERS

But it's okay, you say

You gave us options 

Options you named it

While we sit degraded 

In a circle, silent 

But for the sweet suckling of a babe on the bottle

And like petals, we unfold

Beneath the varnish, the womanhood

Capacity to love

And is it so wrong?

Is it so bad, you say

Not me- you

You who press out poison, 

and print out reason on paper,

make paper from prison

Reasonable, we all reason

Cooing over new life- born to her

Her who is each of us, same shade

Same place

Same pain and holes in her heart and her veins 

Is it so bad?

That you have a right to choose?

Orange or blue?

Orange or white?

Orange or heroin?

And go ahead and count yourself a heroine.

**Author's Note:**

> Orange refers to the color of Suboxone, the prescription drug given at addiction clinics to stave off opiate cravings and halt withdrawls without giving the user any sort of euphoria or high, while also keeping the user physically dependent.
> 
> The opiate crisis is no joke. If you or someone you know needs help, reach out. More people don't need to die. All it takes is one time.


End file.
